Warning: The contents of this article may be triggering. If you're a
survivor, you may want to read it gradually at different times or with
a supportive friend or partner. It also might be a good idea to make
sure that you are in a safe space while you read this, and for some
time afterwards. You might want to remind yourself of a safe place
inside you that parts can go if they need to. It's a healing and
nurturing thing to respect your limits and boundaries, and what you can
hear, for now.

DEFINITIONS

CONCISE DEFINITION

Ritual
abuse is a brutal form of abuse of children, adolescents, and adults,
consisting of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, and involving
the use of rituals. Ritual does not necessarily mean satanic. However,
most survivors state that they were ritually abused as part of satanic
worship for the purpose of indoctrinating them into satanic beliefs and
practices. Ritual abuse rarely consists of a single episode. It usually
involves repeated abuse over an extended period of time.

The
physical abuse is severe, sometimes including torture and killing. The
sexual abuse is usually painful, sadistic, and humiliating, intended as
a means of gaining dominance over the victim. The psychological abuse
is devastating and involves the use of ritual/indoctrination, which
includes mind control techniques and mind altering drugs, and ritual/
intimidation which conveys to the victim a profound terror of the cult
members and of the evil spirits they believe cult members can command.
Both during and after the abuse, most victims are in a state of terror,
mind control, and dissociation in which disclosure is exceedingly
difficult.

DESCRIPTIVE DEFINITION

Ritual
abuse is a brutal form of abuse of children, adolescents, and adults,
consisting of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, and involving
the use of rituals. Ritual does not necessarily mean satanic. However,
most survivors state that they were ritually abused as part of satanic
worship for the purpose of indoctrinating them into satanic beliefs and
practices. Ritual abuse rarely consists of a single episode. It usually
involves repeated abuse over an extended period of time.

Ritual
abuse is usually carried out by members of a cult. The purpose of the
ritual elements of the abuse seems threefold: (1) rituals in some
groups are part of a shared belief or worship system into which the
victim is being indoctrinated; (2) rituals are used to intimidate
victims into silence; (3) ritual elements (e.g., devil worship, animal
or human sacrifice) seem so unbelievable to those unfamiliar with these
crimes that these elements detract from the credibility of the victims
and make prosecution of the crimes very difficult.

Many
victims are children under the age of six who suffer the most severe
and longstanding emotional damage from the abuse. These young victims
are particularly susceptible to being terrorized and indoctrinated into
the abusers’ belief system. During and even long after the abuse
victims live in a state of terror and dissociation and suffer from the
impact of mind control techniques. All this makes the initial
disclosures of abuse exceedingly difficult, and can make each
subsequent disclosure a terrifying and painful experience.

Ritual
abuse is known to occur as an integral part of the life of some
families in which one or both parents participate in conjunction with
the extended family or other group. These groups are typically satanic
in their symbols and beliefs. Children in these settings are severely
abused on an ongoing basis with little time during which they are safe
from abuse. The results are devastating.

Ritual
abuse has also occurred, without parents knowing, at preschools,
day-care centers, churches, summer camps, and at the hands of
baby-sitters and neighbors. The ritual abuse in such an institutional
setting is not incidental to its operation, but is in fact intrinsic to
it, the very reason for the institution’s existence. Children are
subjected to sexual abuse, ritual/intimidation to terrorize them into
silence, and ritual/indoctrination to convert them to the belief or
worship system of the group.

Ritual
abuse of adolescents, and participation by adolescents in perpetrating
ritual abuse, can take place in family or school settings, or in youth
gangs which orient themselves toward a self-styled satanism or other
ritualism, and violence.

Many
adults who are victims and/or perpetrators of ritual abuse came under
the influence of such beliefs and practices in their childhood or
adolescence and may function with severe dissociative disorders,
including multiple personality disorder. Such adults are often working
members of society whose identity as members of satanic or other cults
is not known outside the cult. Some perpetrate abuse, infiltrate,
and/or recruit for the cult in the context of their jobs. Some adults
join the cult later in life, enticed by sexual promiscuity and
perversion, the availability of illicit drugs, the promise of money,
and the satanic spirituality oriented toward power and moral license.

KINDS OF ABUSE

PSYCHOLOGICAL ABUSE

The
psychological abuse which is inflicted as part of ritual abuse causes
severe mental and emotional suffering to the victims. Victims are
subjected to profound terror as well as to mind control techniques so
severe that most victims dissociate their memories of the experience
and lose their sense of free will.

SOME REPORTED EXAMPLES

1.
Threats of punishment, torture, mutilation, or death of the victim, the
victim’s family or pets. Threats are heightened by carrying out
killings of animals or human beings in the presence of the victim,
sometimes with the victim’s forced participation. Told that it would be
futile to disclose because “no-one will believe you.”

2.
Threats against the victim’s property including threats that his/her
house will be broken into or burned down if s/he discloses the abuse.

3.
Told that family or other loving and protective figures are secretly
cult members who intend to harm the victim. Or made to believe that
parents not only know, but have chosen that their child be ritually
abused. Told that s/he is no longer loved by family or by God.

4.
Told that his/her family is not the “real” family, that the abusers are
in fact the child’s “real” family. Victim is told s/he will be
kidnapped and forced to live with the abusers, apart from his/her
family. Or told that parents no longer want the child and approve of
the cult becoming the child’s “new family.”

5.
Tied up or confined to a cage, closet, basement, isolation house, or
other confined space. Told s/he being left there to die. Some are
placed in coffins and told to “practice being dead.” For some this
includes mock burials in which the victim is buried and told s/he is
being left to die. Sometimes a cult member seems to rescue the child
from these terrifying situations and thus the distraught child reaches
out gratefully and bonds to the cult member.

6.
Tied up or confined in space with insects or animals that s/he is told
will harm him/her, or tricked into believing that frightening insects
or animals are present. Confined with or hung upside-down in a hole
with a dead body or the mutilated body parts of an animal or a human
being.

7.
Humiliated or degraded through verbal abuse. Forced nudity in front of
the group. Body of the victim smeared or covered with urine or feces.
Forced ingestion of urine, feces, or semen.

8.
Photographed in sexually provocative poses. Photographed while being
physically or sexually assaulted, or while physically or sexually
assaulting someone else. Forced participation in the production of
pornography used in the intimidation and humiliation of the victim as
well as to financially profit the abusers.

9.
Made to feel constantly watched and monitored by abusers or their
spiritual counterparts (e.g., evil spirits). Made to believe that
disclosure, or failure to perpetrate evil when expected by the group to
do so, will result in punishment or even death.

11.
Subjected to mind control and mind altering drugs which alter the
victim’s perception, interfere with the victim’s resistance to the
assault, and cloud the victim’s recall of the details of the abuse.
Sophisticated uses of hypnosis, indoctrination, programming, and the
use of triggering.

12.
Subjected to rituals like magical surgery, birthing rituals, and
marriage rituals which emphasize the victim’s belonging to, and
subjugation to, the cult. Victims also are forced to participate in
ritual sacrifices and human sacrifices. They are forced into the belief
and worship system of the group. Often, though not always, the belief
and worship of the group is satanic.

13.
Sworn into secrecy regarding cult activities, including the abusive
activities, under penalty of death. Subjected to mind control regarding
how to harm him/herself or even to commit suicide rather than remember
or disclose cult activities. Vulnerable to extreme self-destructive
impulses if s/he even considers leaving the cult.

14.
Compelled to commit heinous acts, including the killing and mutilation
of animals or human beings, sometimes including the victim’s own
children. Compelled to ingest blood or body parts of animals or human
beings in cannibalistic rituals. Subsequently subjected by the group to
profound condemnation and guilt for perpetrating and surviving these
crimes. Victims tricked into believing their participation was
voluntary. Threatened with exposure as a perpetrator.

15.
Compelled to act on behalf of the group while outside the group by
engaging in prostitution, drug dealing, and other illegal activities.
Compelled to extend the group’s sphere of influence and control in
social institutions (e.g., by participating and working in schools,
churches, law enforcement, courts, health and mental health
professions, etc.).

PHYSICAL ABUSE

Ritual
abuse victims are physically abused often to the point of torture.
Young victims who are being ritually abused without the knowledge of
both parents are usually subjected only to physical abuse that is not
easily detected.

LESS DETECTABLE EXAMPLES

Pins
or “shots” inserted into sensitive areas of the body, especially
between digits, under fingernails, or in genital areas. Electric shock
to these body areas. Being hung by hands or upside down by feet for
extended periods of time. Sometimes hung from crosses in mock
crucifixions. Sexual abuse while in such positions. Submerging victim
in water with perception of near drowning. Withholding of food or water
for several hours. Sleep deprivation and activities aimed at inducing
exhaustion.

MORE DETECTABLE EXAMPLES

Physical beatings.
Use of cuts, tattoos, branding, burns, often to sensitive body areas.
Withholding food, water, or sleep for days or weeks.
Removal of body parts, e.g., digits.

SEXUAL ABUSE

The
sexual abuse of ritual victims is unusually brutal, sadistic, and
humiliating. It is far more severe than that which is usually inflicted
by a pedophile or in the context of intrafamilial sexual abuse
(incest). It seems intended as a means of gaining total dominance over
the victim, as well as being an end in itself.

Repeated
sexual assaults by men, women, and other children, often occurring in a
group. May be associated with the marriage ritual, repeated fondling,
oral copulation, rape and sodomy. Assaults include the use of
instruments for penetration of body orifices, including symbolic
objects (e.g., crucifix or wand) or weapons (e.g., knife or gun).

Sexual
assault coupled with physical violence. Participation in rituals in
which sexual assault is associated with death. Forced sexual contact
with dead or dying people. Forced to sexually perpetrate against
children and infants. Forced sexual contact with animals.

GLOSSARY

BIRTHING RITUAL

A
ritual described by victims of ritual abuse in which the victim is
placed within the carcass of a dead animal, or in some cases a dead
human body, and is, in the context of a ritual, “born” into membership
in the group. This ritual is intended to make the victim feel
profoundly connected to the group.

CHILD SEXUAL OFFENDERS

Some
children who have been sexually molested have in turn molested other
children. Children who do act out sexually in this way are almost
always children who themselves have been sexually molested. Child
victims of molestation often feel overwhelmed by intense feelings of
anger, fear, and their own lack of control. Such feelings lead some
molested children to perpetrate against others in an effort to gain
control over the painful feelings of being a victim. The damaging
impact on children who are molested by other children should not be
underestimated or thought of as only “innocent” childhood exploration.

Sexual
assaults which are perpetrated against children in the context of
ritual abuse are generally more sadistic, degrading, and physically
painful than other forms of sexual assault, and leave the child feeling
extremely victimized. Because the emotional damage is likely to be
greater for the ritually abused child, and because the ritual abuse
involves compelling the child to sexually perpetrate against others,
the ritual abuse victim is more likely than other victims of sexual
assault to molest, especially if there has been no recognition of, and
treatment for, that child’s victimization.

CONSENT

Among
adults, someone is regarded as having been sexually victimized when
sexual behavior goes beyond that to which they have consented. Any
sexual activity involving children is by definition activity without
their consent. Children and adolescents are not fully aware of the
implications or consequences of sexual activities. They are under the
legal and physical control of adults. When a person perceived by the
child victim as powerful or authoritative presses for sexual activity,
whether forcefully or seductively, meaningful consent by the victim is
not possible. The imposition of adult sexuality upon the child often
results in the loss of the child’s sense of safety and trust in adults
and in the distortion of that child’s development for years after the
abuse has occurred.

CULT—DESTRUCTIVE

“A
destructive cult may be defined as a closed system/group whose
followers have been recruited deceptively and retained through the use
of manipulative techniques of thought reform and mind control (undue
influence). The system is imposed without the informed consent of the
individual and is designed to alter one’s personality and behavior. The
leadership is all-powerful, the ideology is totalistic, and the will of
the individual is subordinate to the will of the group. The destructive
cult sets itself above society by creating its own values with little
or no regard for society’s ethics or morals.

Spiritual
beings who are evil and ruled by Satan. According to Christian
tradition, they are angels who shared in Satan’s rebellion and were
expelled with him.

Ritually
abused children and adults are victimized at rituals which invoke such
beings. Victims report believing that perpetrators of ritual abuse
possess control over these spiritual entities. Some victims are made to
believe that these spirits have power to control the victim’s life. For
some, the fear of harm from such evil spirits or demons, or the fear of
being controlled by them, is more oppressive and debilitating than fear
of the perpetrators themselves.

DISCLOSURE

The
Accommodation Syndrome described by Roland Summit outlines certain
predictable patterns of tentative disclosure in any child’s effort to
disclose sexual abuse. Briefly, the syndrome helps to explain the
family dynamics and societal pressures which lead a child either to be
unable to disclose sexual abuse or, having disclosed, to subsequently
retract the disclosure. The child is often put in the position of
“mobilizing altruism and self-control to insure the survival of the
other” (Summit, 1983), being forced to choose between ongoing abuse and
the chaos that is sure to follow disclosure.

In
ritual abuse, additional forces can prevent or fragment a child’s
disclosure. Threats have been made of constant surveillance by the
perpetrators and of harm to the child and those s/he loves if s/he
discloses the abuse. Painful physical and sexual abuse make the child
afraid to disclose what was done to him for fear of further harm from
the perpetrators. Memories of systematic humiliation and degradation
may cause the child to feel too ashamed of the activities in which he
was involved to be able to disclose them. Most children are deceived
and manipulated into believing that the actions they took in abusing
others were a result of their own free choice. These children feel
guilty and ashamed and fear rejection and retribution from family and
society.

All
of this, combined with dissociative defense processes, often leads the
child to psychologically isolate the painful experiences and carry on
in other parts of his life without disclosure. Ironically, the closer a
child feels to his parents, the more difficult it may be for him to
disclose. The child feels that his silence is the key to the safety of
his family. Finally, the disbelief on the part of parents, therapists,
society and/or the courts, which is even more extreme in cases of
ritual abuse than of sexual abuse, contribute to the child keeping this
information buried within himself.

Children
may not reveal their ritual abuse until adulthood. When they do attempt
to disclose, they experience the same extreme disbelief as disclosing
children, and are sometimes labeled as psychotic and hallucinatory.
Many also suffer from an extreme form of dissociative processing,
multiple personality disorder.

DISSOCIATION

“A
disturbance or alteration in the normally integrative functions of
identity, memory, or consciousness. The disturbance or alteration may
be sudden or gradual, transient or chronic. If it occurs primarily in
identity, the person’s customary identity is temporarily forgotten, and
a new identity may be assumed or imposed (as in Multiple Personality
Disorder) or the customary feeling of one’s reality is lost and
replaced by a feeling of unreality {as in Depersonalization Disorder).
If the disturbance occurs primarily in memory, important personal
events cannot be recalled (as in Psychogenic Amnesia or Psychogenic
Fugue).” [DSM III-R 1987]

The
horror and fear experienced by a child who is ritually abused is
processed by the child with varying degrees of dissociation as a
defense mechanism against the overwhelming pain. Most children who were
ritually abused during their preschool years will have completely
dissociated the events within two years of the cessation of the abuse,
and will be unable to consciously recall and report what occurred. A
skilled child therapist can help the dissociated ritual abuse victim to
recall his/her abuse and to work through the severe trauma which, if
left untreated, is likely to cause serious emotional problems for the
child throughout his/her life.

EXTRAFAMILIAL SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN

Any
sexual contact or explicit sexual behavior imposed on a child by
someone outside the child’s family. The perpetrator is likely to be
known to the child and his/her family. Frequently the victim’s parent
or guardian, knowingly or unknowingly, will have permitted the
perpetrator to have access to the child.

Research
and clinical experience suggest that children who have been neglected,
abused at home, or who are economically needy, may be particularly
susceptible to the seductive pedophile willing to pay for sexual favors
with gifts and attention.

Ritual
abuse of children does not depend on the particular vulnerabilities of
the child. All children who are trapped in a ritually abusive setting
are vulnerable and in most cases all are abused.

lNTRAFAMILIAL SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN (INCEST)

Intrafamilial
sexual abuse encompasses any form of sexual activity between a child
and another family member. The other family member could be a parent or
stepparent, sibling, or other member of the extended family. Incestuous
assault refers to any manual, oral, or genital sexual contact or other
explicit sexual behavior that a family member imposes on a child or
adolescent.

MAGIC SURGERY

Child
victims of ritual abuse describe being drugged or hypnotized and, on
awakening, being told they have had “magic surgery.” The blood that has
been smeared on their bodies constitutes compelling evidence that such
surgery has taken place. In some cases children are told that a bomb
has been placed inside them, a bomb that will explode if the child ever
discloses the abuse, killing not only the child but the trusted person
to whom he discloses.

Most
typically, child victims of magic surgery are told that they have had a
monster, a demon, or “the devil’s heart” placed inside them, and that
it will attack them if they disclose. They are also told that the
monster, demon, or devil is now in charge of their thoughts and
behavior and will cause the child to “be bad.” Child victims are made
to believe that this entity will cause them pain if they fail to comply
with its wishes. Ritually abused children often report somatic
complaints such as abdominal pain in connection with this phenomenon.

MARRIAGE RITUAL

A
ritual described by victims of ritual abuse in which a “mock marriage”
takes place between a child and a member of the abusive group, between
two children, or between the child and Satan. Victims of this ritual
are made to feel profoundly connected to the group itself or to the
powers of evil.

MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER

“1.
The existence within the person of two or more distinct personalities
or personality states (each with its own relatively enduring pattern of
perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and self).

2.
At least two of these personalities or personality states recurrently
take full control of the person’s behavior.” [DSM III-R 1987]

Kluft,
in describing the kinds of events that trigger the creation of new
personalities in children, delineates the following criteria: (1) the
child fears for his own life; (2) the child fears that an important
attachment figure will die; (3) the child’s physical intactness and/or
clarity of consciousness is breached or impaired; (4) the child is
isolated with these fears; and (5) the child is systematically
misinformed or “brainwashed” about his or her situation. These criteria
are certainly met in the events encountered by the ritually abused
child. Many patients with multiple personality disorder have memories
of severe ritual abuse in the context of a group that used satanic
symbols and rituals. Some young children known to have been ritually
abused show signs of multiple personality disorder.

It
is important to remember that multiple personality disorder is not a
thought disorder, and that although different personalities may be in
touch with different pieces of memory and reality, they are not
delusional. The memories that they express, however painful and
frightening, should not be dismissed as hallucinatory fantasies.

OCCULTISM [from Latin occultus -covered over, concealed]

Belief
in the existence of mysterious, secret, or supernatural sources of
power that can be known and/or communicated with by human beings.
“Occult” is a general designation for various systems of belief,
practices, and rituals based on knowledge of the world of spirits
and/or unknown forces of the universe.

PEDOPHILE [from Greek pedo = child + phile = loving]

An
adult who has sexual relations with a child and receives primary sexual
gratification through sexual contact with children. (Most research has
focused on males, although recognition of the participation of women in
the sexual abuse of children is growing.) Generally, men who molest
children have been thought to fit into one of two categories—“fixated”
abusers whose sexual desires have always been primarily for children,
and “regressed” abusers who have had sexual relationships with adults,
but who begin to sexually abuse children, usually as a result of
traumatic or stressful circumstances. Fathers who have incestuous
relations with their children have often been thought of as being in
this second category. There is also evidence of a third category, that
of “crossover” abusers, that is men who may be fathers, and have sexual
relationships with adults, but whose primary sexual attraction is to
children. Many in this group are in fact pedophiles who have abused
children inside and outside their own homes.

Pedophiles
were themselves often victims of sexual abuse as children. They have
very poor self-esteem and fear the risk of rejection from an adult
partner. They often do not think of themselves as harming children.
They view their sexual activities as acts of love. It is important to
them to believe that the child enjoys the sexual contact as much as
they do. They view the process of having sexual activity with a child
as one of seduction and education rather than of force and power.

PENTAGRAM

A five pointed star. In satanism, used pointing downward, and sometimes enclosed within a circle.

PERPETRATOR OF RITUAL ABUSE

Perpetrators
of ritual abuse usually function in a group setting. Most victims
report being abused by several perpetrators, often in conjunction with
other victims. Women are reported to be perpetrators of ritual abuse as
often as are men.

Little
is know with certainty about the perpetrators of ritual abuse, but it
is important to note that they do not fit commonly held concepts of the
motivation and psychological profile of the pedophile (cf. PEDOPHILE).
Ritual abusers are generally far more sadistic and cruel in their
sexual abuse than are pedophiles. Victims report painful and
frightening sexual acts, and humiliating practices involving, for
example, the use of urine and feces. The perpetrators seem motivated by
a desire to see the victims lose a sense of their own free will,
identify with evil, and submit to the will of the group. Because of the
apparent determination on the part of many ritual abusers to victimize
and indoctrinate as many young children as possible, they frequently
function together in groups in the operation of preschools, day-care
services, and baby-sitting services, providing themselves access to
children outside of their own families.

There
is evidence that many of these perpetrators have been raised in groups
with strong systems of belief or worship (usually satanic in content)
and highly systematic practices of abuse that are passed on within
families from one generation to the next. Thus, many of the
perpetrators of this abuse are in fact both victims and perpetrators
within a family system of abuse. Those who have been victimized by
ritual abuse in a family setting experience varying degrees of
dissociation, including, in some cases, multiple personality disorder.
This may explain how it is possible for some perpetrators to function
undetected in child care settings, to seem quite believable when they
deny children’s complaints of abuse to experienced law enforcement
investigators, and even to do quite well on polygraph examinations.

PORNOGRAPHY

Ritually
abused children report being photographed nude in sexually provocative
poses as well as during sexual and physical assault. Some of these
photographs are circulated or sold for profit. The child victims also
talk about the photographs being shown to them as part of an effort to
make them feel humiliated, ashamed, and fearful of discovery by their
parents. Children are often told that they will be arrested because of
what the photographs show.

POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

A
dissociative disorder triggered by the experience of profoundly
traumatic events. The dissociation may be characterized by intrusion
(intrusive thoughts, nightmares, hypervigilance), and by denial
(inattention, amnesia, and constriction of thought process) [Horowitz,
M. J. Stress Response Syndromes, 1976].

Post-traumatic
stress disorder in adults was first studied in returning war veterans
who experienced amnesia and flashbacks of overwhelmingly traumatic
events from their wartime experience. Studies have since been done of
children exposed to violence or extreme fear who manifest
post-traumatic stress disorder as a result. Sexual abuse has been shown
to cause post-traumatic stress disorder among its victims. If left
untreated, this condition often persists long after the abuse occurred.

Ritual
abuse victims typically suffer from severe post-traumatic stress
disorder. They often experience nightmares or intrusive thoughts
containing elements of ritual violence, yet due to amnesia for the
actual abuse, have no idea why they are troubled by such dreams and
thoughts.

SACRIFICE [from Latin sacrum (holy) + facere (to make)]

A
religious rite in which an object is offered to a god in order to
establish, restore, or maintain a right relationship of man to the
sacred order. Blood sacrifices (killing with bloodshed) are based on
the concept that the sacred life force of both man and animal resides
in blood. Blood is particularly important in rituals involving
fertility, purification and atonement. Sacrifices in different cults
are often required according to certain calendars of special days as
well as for unique purposes on a given occasion. Burning is believed to
be another way that a sacrifice can be made directly available to a
god. A third way in which a sacrifice is conveyed to a god is burial in
the earth. In some belief systems sacrifice is also a means of
obtaining supernatural powers or favors from the god.

HUMAN SACRIFICE

The
offering of the life of a human being to a god. The occurrence of human
sacrifice usually can be related to the belief that blood is the sacred
life force in man. The killing of a human, or of an animal in its
place, represents an attempt to affect communion with a god and
participate in its life force. Sacrifices have been made in connection
with fertility rites, although specific other uses for obtaining powers
and favors are also common. Cannibalism is practiced as part of human
sacrifice because of a belief that by ingesting human blood and flesh
the individual is empowered and transformed by the life force contained
therein.

Adults
and children who have been ritually abused report being forced to
participate in the killing of babies, children, and adults in ritual
settings with the understanding that the purpose is to obtain certain
magical powers. Ritual abuse survivors explain that the drinking of
blood and the practice of cannibalism are ways to invest the
worshipper/perpetrator with the spiritual powers of the victim.

The
practice of human sacrifice as it has been reported by victims of
ritual abuse always raises extreme problems of credibility. Where have
the victims come from? Where are the remains of these victims?
Survivors have explained that victims come from within the cult
membership (including babies “bred” for sacrifice), from the ranks of
homeless people, and even represent some unknown portion of the large
numbers of missing adults and children. Explanations for the absence of
found remains include cannibalism, cult access to mortuaries and
crematoria, frozen storage of body parts, and the retention by cult
members of bones and body parts for further magical practices.

A
spiritual being, opposed to God, supremely evil. According to Christian
tradition an angelic being, once called Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12), created
by Gad for good purposes, but who led a rebellion against God and was
cast out of heaven. Satan is believed to be the Serpent in the Garden
of Eden who tempted Eve to disobey God by saying, “You shall be like
God” (Genesis 3:5). Satan is also called the Father of lies, and Lord
of the Flies (Ba’alzebub). He is the ruler over demons and evil spirits
who works to interfere with the relationship of God and man by
provoking man to evil.

SATANISM

Worship
of Satan. Satanists seek to obtain power to manipulate the world around
them for their own gain by calling upon the powers of Satan in certain
prescribed rituals. They oppose the traditional values of
Judeo-Christian tradition and adhere instead to a system of personal
power and control over the world around them. [“Anyone who claims to be
interested in magic or the occult for reasons other than gaining
personal power is the worst kind of hypocrite.” -Anton LaVey in the
Satanic Bible.]

Many
young children who are victims of ritual abuse describe rituals that
appear to use the accouterments of satanic ritual, e.g., black and red
robes, hoods, altars, pentagrams, daggers, candles, sacrifice, etc.
Many adult survivors describe being ritually abused on an ongoing basis
from early childhood, through adolescence and into adulthood. They
state that their abuse was part of a system of satanic worship and
describe satanic invocations and rituals.

[There
appears to be a wide spectrum of practices, from the more organized
satanic churches to the self-styled practitioners of satanism. It
should be noted that spokespersons for two of the more publicly
well-known satanic organizations, the Church of Satan and the Temple of
Set, have issued statements that their organizations are not in any way
associated with the abuse, sexual or otherwise, of children or adults,
or the sacrifices of animals or human beings.]

SATANIC ALPHABET

Letters
of the alphabet written backwards, upside down, or sideways. A magical
practice stemming from a system which values reversing anything which
is the norm. Some children who attended ritually abusive pre-schools
report having been taught to copy the satanic alphabet. Other occult
alphabets may consist of magical symbols and runes.

SATANIC CALENDAR

There
exist many versions of so-called satanic calendars, each of which
includes a variety of holidays on which certain rituals must be
performed. There are apparently many individual differences among
groups that would call themselves satanists regarding which holidays
are celebrated. Some groups simply do rituals whenever they please.

The
birthday of the individual, Halloween (October 31), and, in some cases,
Beltane (April 30) appear to be the holidays celebrated by most satanic
groups. Many individuals who have been ritually abused and have
participated in rituals on satanic holidays experience particular
difficulty at these times of the year. (Common Halloween celebrations,
for example, regarded by most people as innocent make believe and
child’s play, are extremely traumatic for ritual victims who think of
them as satanic holidays, and as the occasion of ritual celebrations
often including human sacrifice.) On these holidays and on anniversary
dates victims may become emotionally overwhelmed, terrified that cult
members will come to kidnap or kill them. Some are overcome by
horrifying flashbacks of the abuse. Some feel compelled to commit
suicide or self-injury. Others feel a deep compulsion to return to the
cult.

TRANCE STATE

A
dissociative state one enters when hypnotized in which memory and
perception are altered. The dissociative effects of the trance state
can also be induced by other conditions such as physical or mental
exhaustion, terror, repetitive chanting, rituals, or drugs. Not all
individuals are equally susceptible to trance or to dissociation.
Research has shown that those people who show a high degree of
susceptibility to hypnosis are likely to possess some apparently
biological predisposition to it. They are also more likely to have been
victims of abuse as children.

Some
states of trance seem to be self-induced and function as a defense
against experiencing the overwhelmingly painful stimuli of an abusive
environment. For some individuals, the use of self induced trance and
dissociative states in the face of severe abuse can be associated with
the development of multiple personality disorder.

Trances
also can be induced by another person who functions as a hypnotist. The
hypnotist can give post-hypnotic suggestions to the individual in
trance to carry out certain carefully defined actions or to experience
certain emotions or physical sensations after the trance state is over.
These actions or emotions are usually triggered by certain discrete
cues that have been suggested to the subject while s/he was in trance.
The mind control from which many ritual abuse victims suffer is in part
a result of having been put into trance states repeatedly and given a
complicated series of post-hypnotic suggestions (see RITUAL ABUSE AND
THE USE OF MIND CONTROL).

However,
hypnosis and trance states also have an important role to play in
treating ritual abuse victims. In trance employed in a therapeutic
environment, victims are often able to retrieve memories which have
been dissociated from their conscious awareness. This process
constitutes a very significant aspect of the ritual abuse victim’s
recovery.

VICTIMS OF RITUAL ABUSE—YOUNG CHILDREN

Young
children who are victims of ritual abuse usually fall into one of two
categories: those whose families are perpetrators, and those who are
abused without the parents’ knowledge. Ritual abuse within families
(intrafamilial) can be particularly destructive because of the
continual physical presence of the perpetrators and the lack of any
safe environment for the child. Intrafamilial abuse usually includes
the extended family and is multigenerational. In cases of intrafamilial
ritual abuse, the abuse and indoctrination are incessant. Children are
generally raised to perform a given role within the group and are
continuously being trained to fulfill that role. The child feels him or
herself to be identified as a member of the abusive group because of
the biological relationship with the offending paints and because of
the group’s indoctrination about the inevitability of the child’s
continued participation. Dissociation is the result of such abuse and
in some cases will manifest in the emergence of multiple personality
disorder. Therapy for victims’ intrafamilial ritual abuse usually is
not sought until adulthood, if ever.

Children
who are abused outside their home (extrafamilial) generally have a
better prognosis because of the presence in their lives of loving
adults who protect them from known sources of harm. Unfortunately, the
parents of many young victims are unable to believe that their children
have been ritually abused, and refuse to acknowledge that they have a
problem or to seek help. Their children often have been made to believe
that their parents were willing co-conspirators with the abusers,
leaving the children very confused, with feelings of dread and distrust
toward their own parents. The extreme severity of the abuse, and the
systematic attempts to indoctrinate the child into the cult’s belief
system, make the recovery process quite difficult and protracted even
with the help of skilled therapists. Children who are not treated are
likely to face very poor outcomes.

WITCHCRAFT

Witchcraft
is an ancient and widespread practice, the tribal religion of
Pre-Christian Europe. In contemporary practice, much of witchcraft
focuses on self-knowledge and healing, revering the laws of nature and
working with nature. Many modern witches, predominantly women,
conceptualize witchcraft within the context of feminist theory and
consciousness, re-empowering the symbols of the feminine.

Because
of its general antithesis to Christianity, and because many members of
destructive cults identify themselves as witches, witchcraft and
satanism are often believed to be analogous. While abuse has been
described as having occurred in connection with witchcraft, witchcraft
per se does not connote abuse.

GROUPS IDENTIFIED WITH SATANISM

Church of the Final Judgment—also known as The Process

Church of Satan (founded by Anton La Vey)

Ordo Templis Orientalis (once headed by Aleister Crowley)

Temple of Set (led by Lt. Col. Michael Aquino, U.S. Army)

Worldwide Church of Satanic Liberation (led by Paul Valentine—recruits teens)

RITUAL ABUSE AND THE USE OF MIND CONTROL

Mind
control is the cornerstone of ritual abuse, the key element in the
subjugation and silencing of its victims. Victims of ritual abuse are
subjected to a rigorously applied system of mind control designed to
rob them of their sense of free will and to impose upon them the will
of the cult and its leaders. Most often these ritually abusive cults
are motivated by a satanic belief system. The mind control is achieved
through an elaborate system of brainwashing, programming,
indoctrination, hypnosis, and the use of various mind-altering drugs.
The purpose of the mind control is to compel ritual abuse victims to
keep the secret of their abuse, to conform to the beliefs and behaviors
of the cult, and to become functioning members who serve the cult by
carrying out the directives of its leaders without being detected
within society at large.

The
information available about how ritually abusive cults indoctrinate
young children comes primarily from child and adult survivors who have
been able to remember how the cult achieved mind control over them and
others in the cult. Therapists who have worked extensively with ritual
abuse victims have gleaned a significant, although still incomplete,
degree of understanding of the process by which the mind control is
achieved. A key element of the victim’s recovery from ritual abuse
consists of understanding, unraveling, and undoing the mind control
which usually persists for a long time, even in victims who no longer
participate in the cult. Undoing these controls is critical, for
victims may remain unable to disclose their abuse, or vulnerable to
cult manipulation if the systematic programming is not dismantled. As
more ritual abuse victims are helped to free themselves from cult mind
control, the body of information about this important aspect of ritual
abuse continues to grow.

Satanic
cults focus their initial efforts to achieve mind control mast
frequently and strenuously with children under the age of six. Like
developmental psychologists, satanists understand that people are most
susceptible to having their character, beliefs, and behavior molded
during this early period of development. This review of the mind
control techniques utilized by satanic cults will focus primarily on
the techniques used on very young children, both those in ritually
abusive families, and those in extrafamilial settings, such as day-care
and preschools. Children who are abused in intrafamilial settings are
subjected to ongoing mind control that is often sustained in extreme
forms throughout their childhood and adolescence.

There
is a growing body of research into the indoctrination techniques which
are used by a wide range of destructive cults. It is helpful to
consider how satanic cults make use of these and other techniques to
control their victims.

In
Cults, Quacks and Non-Professional Psychotherapists, West and Singer
have described elements of cult indoctrination as follows:

1. Isolation of the recruit and manipulation of his environment.

2. Control over channels of communication and information.

3. Debilitation through inadequate diet and fatigue.

4. Degradation or diminution of the self.

5. Induction of uncertainty, fear, and confusion, with joy and certainty through surrender to the group as a goal.

6. Alternation of harshness and leniency in a context of discipline.

7. Peer pressure generating guilt and requiring open confessions.

8.
Insistence by seemingly all-powerful hosts that the recruit’s
survival—physical or spiritual—depends on identifying with the group.

9. Assignment of monotonous or repetitive tasks such as chanting or copying written materials.

10. Acts of symbolic betrayal or renunciation of self, family, and
previously held values, designed to increase the psychological distance
between the recruit and his previous way of life.

Satanic
cults use many of the same techniques, but apply them in unique ways to
indoctrinate and control very young children. To begin with, they
impose a variety of PHYSICAL, EMOTIONAL, and COGNITIVE CONDITIONS which
are conducive to indoctrination.

PHYSICAL CONDITIONS

1. HUNGER AND THIRST

Ritually
abused children are often deprived of food and water for extended
periods of time, and are told they will be left to die of hunger and
thirst. Their deprivation and fear of dying make them willing to comply
with virtually any behavior or belief necessary to be given food or
water again. The cult member who finally does feed the child is
perceived as an ally and benefactor. The child feels deeply grateful
and is thus susceptible to bonding with that cult member, thereby
increasing the child’s vulnerability to identifying with the cult and
its beliefs and practices.

2. PAIN

Ritually
abused children are physically tormented and sexually abused in very
painful ways. The pain can cause them to dissociate* and, like
prisoners of war subjected to torture, they become willing to do
whatever is demanded of them in order to make the pain stop. For a
young child who is ritually abused in an out-of-home care setting, even
a brief encounter with intense pain profoundly impacts that child’s
susceptibility to cult mind control. For those children raised in
cults, the use of pain and the threat of pain continues for as long as
they are submitted to the cult, causing an ongoing and deepening degree
of subservience to the cult.

3. DRUGS

Both
child and adult victims of ritual abuse have described being abused
with mind-altering drugs. Some drugs are injected or administered in
suppositories. Others are hidden in food or drink, or simply swallowed
under duress.

The
drug effects include hypnotic and paralytic effects, causing victims to
experience mental and emotional states ranging from confusion and
drowsiness, to passivity and helplessness. Memory distortions occur as
well. Victims tend to recall very real and painful experiences only
with difficulty as though they were unreal or even just dreams.
Additionally, in such drug-induced states, young children are even more
pliable than they would otherwise be, and more open to the belief
system into which the cult is attempting to indoctrinate them. Cult
leaders capitalize on drug-induced reality distortions to create the
illusion that they have absolute power to which the child must submit.

4. EXHAUSTION

Ritually
abused children are often deprived of rest and sleep. In the
extrafamilial settings in which ritual abuse occurs, children are
frequently deprived of needed nap and rest periods. In ritually abusive
family settings, children may be deprived of sleep for extended periods
of time. The influence of repeated drugging further deepens their sense
of exhaustion. People in a state of exhaustion are more open to mind
control because fatigue saps their normal coping capacities. This
effect is especially pronounced in young children.

5. ISOLATION

Ritually
abused children are put into closets, holes, cages, coffins, and other
confined, usually dark, spaces. The children are often isolated there
and told they will be left to die. The sensory deprivation that may
result can cause some degree of disorientation. The isolation causes
the child to feel desperate and overwhelmed with fear and dread. An
abusive adult who subsequently releases the child from confinement is
perceived by the child as a rescuer, often causing the young child to
bond to that cult member. The child’s bonding with one or more cult
members increases the degree of the child’s identification with the
values and beliefs of the cult. In other words, both the isolation and
the rescue make the child more susceptible to indoctrination into the
destructive beliefs and practices of the cult.

6. SEXUAL ABUSE

Ritually
abused children are subjected to brutal sexual abuse which involves
severe pain and may involve sexual arousal with which the children are
neither physically nor emotionally prepared to cope. Sometimes the
sexual abuse is performed with symbolic instruments (e.g., penetration
with a crucifix or wand) which reinforces the satanic belief system of
the cult. The pain, especially if in combination with arousal, is
extremely disorienting and overwhelming, again making the child willing
to comply with the demands of the cult members in order to make the
feelings stop. The sexual arousal can contribute to the formation of
distorted bonds with the abusers, leading to identification with the
abusive cult.

7. BRIGHT LIGHTS

Adult
and child victims of ritual abuse describe having harsh, intensely
bright lights shined in their eyes immediately before and during
indoctrination. The lights appear to disorient them and to induce a
state of trance* which lowers the victim’s resistance and heightens the
susceptibility to indoctrination.

EMOTIONAL CONDITIONS

1. TERROR

Ritually
abused children have been terrorized and are profoundly afraid of their
abusers. They have endured physical torture and painful sexual
assaults. They have witnessed the terror, torture, and murder of other
children and adults in group settings, experiences which greatly
intensify the child’s own overwhelming fears. Their terror is
heightened by what they perceive as the omnipotence and omniscience of
their abusers, including what they believe are their abusers’ abilities
to control them through the use of demons and evil spirits.

Ritually
abused children have also been threatened repeatedly with death to
themselves and their families should they disclose. This state of
terror causes the child to be willing to do or believe anything to
appease the abusers, thereby reducing the degree of threat the child
feels from them.

2. GUILT AND SHAME

Ritually
abused children have been forced to engage in humiliating and degrading
activities such as handling, smearing, and ingesting urine, feces,
blood, and human flesh. They have been photographed pornographically
and, sometimes, been made to view these pictures. They have been forced
to participate in the abuse, torture, and killing of animals, and the
murder of children and adults.

They
are then made to feel responsible for their actions as though these
actions were freely chosen by them. They are threatened with exposure
as perpetrators, and fear being rejected completely by their families
or even being arrested and jailed. Their feelings of guilt and shame
contribute to a perception that through their actions, they have
already shown their loyalty to the cult and its beliefs. They are made
to feel that the abusive group itself is their only refuge of
acceptance. By turning to the abusive group for a sense of acceptance
and protection, these children are open to even further indoctrination.

3. EMOTIONAL ISOLATION AND DESPAIR

Children
who are ritually abused are made to feel cut off and rejected by their
families and the rest of the world. They are often told that their
“real parents” have died or Dave abandoned them, and that the people
with whom they live are pretenders. Sometimes they are told that the
cult members are their “real parents” who will someday “rescue” them
from their homes. These ritually abused children often come to feel
emotionally estranged from their families. The deep loneliness which
results opens them to bonding with abusive cult members, identifying
with them, and thus becoming open to indoctrination into the cult’s
system of beliefs and practices.

In
addition, children who are ritually abused are profoundly sad. They
experience tragedy and horror, as well as isolation, at an intensity
which would induce an overwhelming sadness in a mature adult. They may
come to feel utterly hopeless, and in their despair they are likely to
feel that cult abuse and cult membership are all that they deserve and
all that they can imagine for their future. The cult convinces them
that there is no place to turn for help, and thus no way out of the
cult.

4. RAGE

Ritual
abuse provokes children to feel enormous rage, because the violation
which they experience is so great. This rage within the child
contributes to the cult’s efforts to indoctrinate that child into a
belief system in which violence and rage are valued and encouraged. A
child who has been repeatedly violated by the cult over time, and not
permitted to express any emotion about his/her abuse, may be eager to
vent his/her rage by striking out and victimizing others. The
assaultive behavior which ensues is encouraged and rewarded by adult
cult members, and is used to make the child feel s/he already is just
like the abusive adults who have provoked the rage.

COGNITIVE CONDITIONS

1. LACK OF INFORMATION

Young
children who are being ritually abused lack sufficient information and
experience to know that much of what their abusers tell them is untrue.
They lack the cognitive development to perceive the contradictions in
some of the lies they are told. They are likely to accept the
misinformation offered by the cult members as part of the mind control
process.

2. CONFUSION

Ritually
abused children are confused by the infliction of pain, the exhume
sexual arousal caused by sexual abuse, the incessant directives to do
things they know are wrong, the extensive lying and deception by cult
members, and the perceived loss of control over their own behavior and
the behavior of those around them. Children in such situations long for
explanations from adults to reduce their confusion about what is
happening to them. The result again is an increased vulnerability to
indoctrination as they open themselves to any explanations offered by
the adults in the cult.

THE ROLE OF TRANCE STATES

These
conditions—physical, emotional, and cognitive—exacerbate the impact of
the child’s ritual abuse, especially in combination with the used
trance states. It is important to look at the role of trance states in
achieving mind control over the ritually abused child. When children
are in a state of trance, they are more open to indoctrination and
other techniques for attaining control over their minds and behavior.
For example, a child who hears an adult state repeatedly, “Satan has
the power,” is much more likely to incorporate that as a deeply held
belief if the child is in a state of trance, than if the child is in a
normal waking state.

There
are many means by which trance states can be achieved with children
during the course of ritual abuse. The rituals themselves contain many
trance inducing elements, among them, chanting, isolation, sensory
deprivation, pain, and other forms of extreme physical discomfort.
Trance states are also induced in ritual abuse victims by using
hypnosis and hypnotic drugs.

Traumatic
experiences which occur while the victim is in a trance state can be
used to indoctrinate victims. These experiences have a profound and
long-lasting impact on the beliefs, feelings, and even the behavior of
victims, despite the fact that these experiences cannot always be
remembered consciously. Only later in life, usually with the help of a
highly skilled therapist, are some ritual abuse victims able to
painstakingly reconstruct what happened to them while they were in
various states of trance or dissociation.

The
fact that certain events are not easily remembered does not mean that
they do not have a significant impact on the life of the individual.
Until the memories are surfaced and worked through in a safe
environment, the survivor of such abuse is still controlled to some
extent by these past experiences. Typically, the survivor will react
most strongly to past indoctrination when triggered by an event which
is a reminder of it. For example, if the survivor was abused in
childhood by a cult that conducted abusive rituals on every full moon,
s/he may feel compelled as an adult to seek out a cult and participate
in rituals whenever the moon is full. Or s/he may be triggered to
perform a physically or sexually assaultive act on the full moon
without seeking out a cult. Alternatively s/he may act out in some
other compulsive way to cope with the anxiety associated with the
dissociated memory of this traumatic event.

Survivors
experience triggering of certain beliefs into which they were
indoctrinated, or certain behaviors that they are programmed to enact.
They are usually unaware of what it is that is triggering them. With
help, a victim can bring the triggering events to conscious awareness,
and then can gradually become empowered to free him/herself from these
compulsions.

Behaviors
can be triggered spontaneously by cues that by chance happen to remind
the individual of past indoctrination or programming. Cues may be
implanted by the cult during indoctrination which can also be employed
deliberately by cult members to elicit particular behaviors from a
victim. For example, a survivor who was ritually abused and
indoctrinated in early childhood can often be called back into the cult
years after the indoctrination occurred when approached by a cult
member who knows what trigger words or signs to use to access that
individual’s programming and gain the desired response.

The
abusive system of mind control described has distinct EMOTIONAL
CONSEQUENCES, as well as a major impact upon the COGNITIVE and
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS under which the victims function.

EMOTIONAL CONSEQUENCES of ritual abuse and mind control for both adult and child survivors include the following.

1. TERROR

Ritually
abused children are overwhelmed with profound fear. They are
hypervigilant, feeling that they are constantly being watched. They are
anxious and agitated, sometimes mistakenly perceived as “hyperactive.”

2. GUILT AND FEAR OF DISCOVERY

Ritually
abused children experience profound fear both of punishment and loss of
love from family and friends. They have been made to feel that their
participation in heinous acts was freely chosen and that they are
responsible for their actions. They are especially fearful of being
found responsible by their families or by the authorities (e.g.,
police) and of being punished for their participation in the violence,
sexual contacts, pornography, and murders.

3. LONELINESS

Children
abused ritually outside of their families feel painfully cut off from
their families and deeply lonely. They feel that the acts they have
committed, and the vows they have been forced to make to the cult and
to Satan, separate them from their families irrevocably. This kind of
emotional estrangement from their parents is often accompanied by
profound despair.

4. IDENTIFICATION WITH THE GROUP AND A SENSE OF PERSONAL BADNESS

Ritually
abused children tend to feel identified with the evil performed by the
cult. This feeling of being “one of the bad people” often leads to
compulsions to behave in physically and sexually assaultive ways.

5. RAGE OVER VICTIMIZATION

Enraged
child victims are encouraged to act out their anger by assaulting
others and are then told that this is evidence that they are truly
becoming members of the abusive group. Thus, even their own rage is
turned against ritually abused children, thereby heightening their
sense of hopelessness and entrapment.

6. LOSS OF SENSE OF SELF

Ritual
abuse victims feel a loss of boundaries between the self and the group.
Often, they come to be so identified with the group that they feel like
an extension of it. This loss of the sense of self contributes to
feelings of personal badness and of rage.

7. ABSENCE OF FREE WILL

As
a result of techniques like magic surgery*, the perception that
controlling evil spirits* are present, that cult members know
everything that the child thinks or does, and the use of impossible
double binds (e.g., stab or be stabbed), the victim comes to feel that
there is no choice but to comply, and yet is still burdened by guilt
and shame.

COGNITIVE BELIEFS imparted by ritual abuse and mind control, seen in both adult and child survivors, include the following.

1. THERE IS NO ESCAPE

“The
cult members are everywhere. The spirits, monsters, demons, devils,
etc. that the cult controls, surround me, too. They know if I violate
any of the rules of the cult, and they will punish me. I can never
leave.”

2. THE CULT COMPLETELY CONTROLS ME

“I
am controlled by the cult and by the demon* which the cult has placed
in me to both control and monitor my behavior. I have no freedom and
must follow the orders of the cult leaders in all things. I must be
ready to assault others and neither trust nor make any close
associations with anyone outside the cult.”

3. I AM INCAPABLE OF PROTECTING MYSELF

“I am inadequate. I have no control and no power. I am paralyzed.”

4. THE CULT IS MY ONLY TRUE FAMILY

(In
extrafamilial cases)—”My family is dangerous to me and only the cult
members accept me. I will eventually live with them forever because
they are my true family.”

5. MEMORIES ARE DANGEROUS

“I
must hurt myself if I begin to remember. I must cut myself, beat
myself, or kill myself if I remember what happened. Terrible things
will happen to me and my family if I remember.”

6. DISCLOSURES ARE DANGEROUS

“The cult will know if I tell anyone. If I do tell, I or my family will be hurt by them, or I will be compelled to hurt myself.”

RELIGIOUS BELIEFS imparted by ritual abuse and mind control, seen in both adult and child survivors, include the following.

1. SATAN IS STRONGER THAN GOD

“Satan has all the power. He is stronger than God. God has not been able to do anything to protect me from what has happened.”

2. GOD DOES NOT LOVE ME

“I
am despised and rejected by God. I am guilty of crimes that God could
never forgive. I am evil and beyond hope for redemption or
restoration.”

3. GOD WANTS TO PUNISH ME

“I am profoundly afraid of God who must want to destroy me.”

4. MY LIFE IS CONTROLLED BY SATAN

“I
belong to Satan irrevocably. His power lives inside me and has taken
over my life. I am possessed by an evil spirit or demon that controls
my life.”

5. MY LIFE IS DEDICATED TO SATAN

“I
have taken vows to serve Satan throughout my life. I will serve him by
willingly committing acts of evil and destruction. In turn, he will
protect me from harm and allow me to gratify all of my desires.”